Starting to trust the FS

After a month or so of riding a lot of more technical single track stuff, it was interesting to ride some familiar fire road yesterday and see how my perception of it has changed. It was 6 weeks since I last rode this loop.

It was ridiculously hot yesterday and normally that slows me down, but my time around the loop was about 10% faster than before, and I was even trying to save some energy for the run after. The climbs didn't seem as steep. Very noticeable though was how the long steep descent seemed more fun than sketchy. It is the highlighted bit in red above. 15% grade for over half a mile.

It was definitely a good practice brick before the race this weekend, and a good shakedown ride to get used to the new (thicker) grips on the bars and the adjusted ergos of the levers. A little bit of lube on the chain and the bike is good to go for the race. Maybe one more open water swim practice for me and I'm good to go as well.